Did the FBI fail in its obligations? Special Prosecutor John Durham published on Monday May 15 his “investigation into the investigation” carried out by the American intelligence services in 2016 into possible collusion between Donald Trump and Russia during the presidential election. The conclusions are formal: the FBI relied on “raw intelligence that had not been analyzed or corroborated” to launch its investigations. He also lacked “objectivity” in the management of this file.
John Durham’s report was eagerly awaited, especially by the Trump camp. The special prosecutor spent nearly four years on “Crossfire Hurricane”, the FBI’s counterintelligence operation, named after a famous Rolling Stones song. Federal police were investigating links between Russian officials and members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. This case darkened the first part of the former Republican head of state’s mandate, who regularly called it a “hunting to witches”.
“Lack of rigor”
John Durham’s findings are not new. In 2019, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller had already claimed in a report that there was insufficient evidence to establish collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s team. But “the FBI and the Justice Department must recognize that a lack of analytical rigor, confirmation bias, and over-reliance on sources linked to political opponents have prevented investigators from considering alternative hypotheses and taking action.” with appropriate objectivity,” writes John Durham in his 300-page report.
In addition to the weakness of the elements having initiated the investigation, he also criticizes the federal police for having acted according to a system of two weights, two measures. “The speed and manner in which the FBI” decided to investigate Donald Trump “contrasts with the approach previously taken in a case of possible foreign interference in the campaign” of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, he states , also pinning the “cavalier attitude” of some investigators.
No change in FBI methodology
However, John Durham is not asking for any particular changes in the FBI’s methodology. “The answer is not to create new rules, but to renew loyalty to old ones,” he said. As for the federal police, she assured that “dozens of corrective actions” had already been carried out in recent years. “Had they been in place in 2016, the blunders identified in this report could have been prevented,” a spokesperson said.
Donald Trump did not fail to react to the work of the special prosecutor. “John Durham has concluded that the FBI should never have launched the Trump-Russia investigation,” he wrote on Truth Social. “In other words, the American public has been had,” added the man who is seeking a second term in 2024. His supporters went in his direction. Many saw the report as confirmation of the institutions’ non-objectivity. “It confirms what we already knew: federal agencies have fabricated a false conspiracy theory of collusion between Trump and Russia,” Ron DeSantis, Republican and Governor of Florida, for example, assured on Twitter. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a close Trump ally, announced he would invite John Durham to testify next week.